Here is a detailed explanation of what I have written so far—a title, subtitle, and main page—in theoretical and practical terms. This should contextualize the rest of the essays for you.
theory
Definition of Terms
Conjecture: a conclusion or supposition based on incomplete information. The darkness conjecture needs further testing and experimentation. Then it might become an hypothesis.
Strife: conflicted effort.
Rapture: the quiet, profound enjoyment of communion with Universe. Normally underlies all human experience.
Suffering includes the spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, social, and ecological.
“…a catastrophically injured psyche” means a consciousness that is: extremely traumatized; in analgesia; and malfunctioning in its principal faculties of thinking, feeling, and movement. We are crazy because we are damaged, not evil, flawed, nor ignorant.
“…the psyche…will heal itself”, means it will not just cope, but recover.
I believe the darkness conjecture may be true because, in my darkness retreats, I experienced an extreme degree of relief from suffering and an astonishing if temporary restoration of genuine well-being, including moments of rapture. Also, the conjecture makes sense. It is essentially a logical argument, each point of which everyone either knows or can find out for herself.
practice
The application of the darkness conjecture lies in doing darkness retreats of increasing length combined with radical changes in lifestyle until vitality is completely restored.
A darkness retreat consists of resting in an absolutely dark room for days at a time. The darkroom should be warm and well-ventilated, with places for personal storage, eating, eliminating, bathing, stretching, and resting in various positions. Nothing else. A good length for a first retreat is 2.5 days. I believe 14 days is enough to test the conjecture fully.
A supporter checks in with the retreatant and brings food on a daily basis. The retreatant has a way to contact the supporter in case of emergency while maintaining darkness. The supporter has completed at least one retreat herself; knows the most basic ideas of Natural Hygiene; is reliable; and has a modicum of common sense. Expertise is not required.
Regarding lifestyle change: if the insanity and unworkability of our way of life is not yet obvious to you, doing a darkness retreat will likely make it so. Virtually every element of our culture cries out for attention: family, habitat, shelter, food, clothing, work, energy, money, transportation, law, etc. Yet the radical solutions that lifestyle researchers and ecological designers have been delivering for decades go largely ignored.
The restoration of psychic integrity is the master key to their realization. We will still have to open the door and walk through, but maybe we can stop trying to pick the lock.
notes
…on the conjecture’s logic and wording:
A logical argument delineates the conjecture’s chain of causation:
darkness argument
- Rapture is the natural human condition.
- The human condition turns to suffering from a catastrophic injury to the psyche.
- The psyche is a system of an organism.
- Organisms are self-healing.
- Healing requires vital energy.
- Vital energy accumulates during rest.
- Profound psychic rest occurs in absolute darkness.
- Therefore, darkness retreating is a way to restore rapture.
The conjecture has changed over time. The wording of the original version influences the essays that follow, so I am including it here:
the darkness conjecture, original version
- Civilized people suffer inordinately from meaninglessness, confusion, self-hatred, disease, sociopathy, and ecocide.
- These conditions result from impaired consciousness, one traumatized into a round-the-clock fixation on gross reality and a denial of subtle reality (dreamtime).
- This pathological fixation is a defensive posture against further gross injuries which civilization routinely inflicts on its members.
- Consciousness, as a biological faculty, will heal from these injuries given the proper conditions, primarily rest.
- Sustained total darkness leads to radically altered brain chemistry, inducing deep rest long enough to enable consciousness to permanently heal.
- Healed consciousness clears the way back to a full life, dispelling our suffering and absurd problems.
Over time, this version seemed more and more incoherent to me. Reading The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene by Herbert Shelton helped me grasp the crucial role in health of vital energy. This enabled me to tie the conjecture together.
Hi Andrew…
The strangest connections happen while tramping about the internet sometimes.
Just found your site after visiting a KickStarter project where I saw the name Andrew Durham in the comments… the humour and fun link provided there gave me a smile (which I’m in sore need of lately) and so I did a quick search of this name and found your LinkedIn page… which led me here.
I’ve been in an emotional downward spiral that I’ve been struggling with from early childhood and just fighting the continuous urge to die sometimes is unbearable, let alone fighting off all else, but now I’m struggling with unbearable phyiscal pain as well that has left me teetering between that sad old desperate thought of giving up on my dreams and saying “Tough! Ain’t gonna happen… time to throw in the towel” or just existing on through all the pain until my body says enough.
Truly, even the hottest tears eventually run cold.
But the reason I’m writing (before continuing on with reading) is something you mentioned in your answer to Stephanie above:
This hit such a chord with me. Curious your linking your ideas with darkness to swimming: Darkness and water have always been two, well I’m not sure what to call them other than constant droning calls in the back of my mind. And strangely the constant ‘craving’ for water… to swim, to float, to move through oceans… has gotten so strong in the last few years and almost unbearably so since the physical pain has taken over the main focus in the last year that, when I’m able to dream, I often dream of swimming… and always at night, or at least in dark & vast places. I so wish I had listened at the beginning… who knows now what sort of healing I could have gained before it all went too far.
Simple fear has kept me bound to land… not fear of water, but other fears.
So I’m curious if you have any ideas if darkness and water are linked in any way besides all our first 9 months of existence of course, or if using the two together can increase the results or the speed of healing. Just a thought.
Looking forward to reading more and learning more… and thankful for a happy accident.
…and having severe difficulty swimming in this basketball court of life
M.
(thank you!)
Hi, M,
You’re welcome. I’m glad what I wrote hit a chord with you.
While I don’t know what unbearable chronic physical pain is like, I know about emotional downward spirals. Sometimes the will to go on simply gets the wind knocked out of it. But as long as struggle is possible, my own belief is to continue to struggle, if only to let out a cry for help.
There are always two values at stake in any trial: the external value (like life or health), and the internal one, which feeds or strengthens the soul. Life or health may be lost, but the other is guaranteed provided one tries. So I hope you will continue trying as long as you can. In this regard, if you like to read stories, I highly recommend the novels of Ayn Rand.
Like darkness, water is a condition of life and therefore of health and healing. Just as I have found eating to be more satisfying and sleeping more restful, I have found bathing during a retreat to be more refreshing than usual. In fact, hydropathy greatly influenced Natural Hygiene, the theory of health and healing on which my approach to darkness is based. Water is irreplaceable in the hydration and elimination of toxins, both gross and subtle (energetic).
Water is also highly conductive and thus useful for earthing (grounding) purposes. Earthing has proven rapidly effective in reducing chronic pain. Swimming or floating, especially in natural bodies of water (no chlorine or bromine), is the best way to discharge accumulated electromagnetic pollution and also absorb useful electrons from Earth. This is hard science, a clinically tested extension of what is already applied throughout the electronics industry.
In this connection, using earthing sheets in bed has also helped many people in the reduction of pain and many other inflammatory conditions. I ground my bed at night and use the same wire to ground my computer when I use it. I notice when I forget to do either.
So I hope your dreams of swimming are fulfilled somehow. Whatever your other fears may be, I do not know what basis they could have. Health results from healthful living, which means providing the conditions of health. Illness results from witholding these same conditions. There are fewer conditions more immediate than water or more enjoyably provided than by swimming.
But, of course, there can be extenuating circumstances that require adaptation of the basic principle. Feel free to write me privately for help in working this out. The devil is in the details.
Andrew, although I have not yet read through the entire website, I am wondering if you consider the healing power of darkness in a metaphorical sense as well? Such as engaging with one’s ‘shadow’ or the ‘darker’ elements of human nature.
Stephanie
Hi, Stephanie, I think as you read you will see that I do not view darkness as having any healing power whatsoever. Only organisms have healing power. Only the body has the power to heal itself. It merely uses the condition of darkness to perform certain processes difficult or impossible elsewhere. Like a swimming pool doesn’t make me swim, but I can swim in it, whereas I can’t swim on a basketball court.
I think this point can seem trivial at first. Like, what kind of meaningless distinction is that?! But really, there is no more important point I make on this site. I hope it grows on you as it has on me. It has a strange power to slowly crack open the world as one knows it.
Yes, I do think about darkness in a metaphorical sense. The shadow is a trap for vital energy, just as Jung said. Somehow it must be freed.
Though not necessarily with psychotherapy or even self-observation. I now think the organism is capable of restoring much of its psyche automatically without one’s ever knowing what happened. Self-knowledge gets to be a trap of its own after awhile.
I do not think there are darker elements of human nature, just dark forms it had to take to survive under extreme circumstances. Like when I look in the mirror most mornings.
This is a most beautiful science you are working on here. There have been successful cases of extended darkness making bi-polar and psychotic individuals see the workings of their own psychosis and overcome them. This is the mental health “breakthrough” that will be mainstream in the next decade.
The prevalence and growth of the “float” industry (sensory deprivation a la John Lily) and the use of cannabis (an ego lessening and current moment focuser) for PTSD for war veterans shows a shift from “traditional” mental health avenues. Darkness allows the brain to re-regulate, dump cortisol, increase pituitary gland function and synthesizes normal brain chemicals into melatonin, to pinaline and finally 5-meo-dmt (arguably a spirit molecule).
The fact that this function is inherent in every human is a mystery to me. Why would a biological process needing extended, unbroken darkness to happen exist? Where in evolution was this process begun? We are unwrapping a gift to humanity. Please keep going… I will try to do my part here.
Seek Within
Oscar
I think the explanation lies in our diurnal nature. We wake during the day and sleep at night. Human life is occasionally subject to extreme stress. So it is natural that we would seek darkness–more of it for longer periods–to rest and recover from this stress.
The process also happens through advanced spiritual practices, but so far, I find this approach incredibly laborious. Some traditions use darkness, but their attitude is unnecessarily fear-ridden. Please see “hygiene of darkness” for more on this.
Regarding evolution, I don’t believe in it, so I don’t find it necessary or useful in understanding the process.